Concept Art of Golden Age
Overview Well...this is just hand drawn concept art of elements of Golden Age, specifically FOR Golden Age...yeah. Xinhan *'Xinhan Bowgunner:' the Xinhan Bowgunner is the main ranged infantry unit of the Xinhan military. While its range is fairly large, its range of accuracy is fairly low, at about 30 Meters. Nevertheless, Bowguns, which are essentially a type of Needle Gun in which a crossbow mechanism in stead of a spring bolt controls the needle, are an extremely advanced and reliable weapon in comparison to the matchlock arquebuses used by even the best of militaries of the age. The Xinhan bowgunner wears only light armor, a simple heavy coat with pieces of either metal or pottery sewn in. Like most of the New Han and Old Han banner armies, the Xinhan wear lacquered, metal-plated helmets reminiscent of that of the Japanese Ashigaru. *'Yumi Irregular and Xinhan Officer:'Xinhan offiers, mostly from the Han group, are dressed largely like the troops they command, wearing a similar conical hat and even the same cloak, though of a more ornate nature. The Yumi Irregular is a highly elite mercenary hired from the local Yumi tribes. While wearing half-native, half-western clothes, the Yumi use Mongol Compound bows, Chinese Qiang, and their own warclubs to devastating effect. A tribe of Yumi once defeated a whole unit of Old Han Heavy Infantry. Yumi are also excellent trackers. *'Xinhan Arquebusier:' a now relatively Archaic part of the Xinhan military, the Arquebusier usually plays the role of a long-range skirmisher, its arquebus allowing it to fire beyond the range of native and local bows. However, the inaccuracy of the Arquebus meant that Arquebusiers were usually dispatched in bulk. Due to their relatively low training time and cost, Arquebusiers are not given especially good equipment, wearing only a leather coat for any protection at all. They wear Ashigaru-like Lacquer hats. *'Old Han Heavy Infantry:' while new, updated forces have gained importance, the bulk of the Xinhan army relies on Old Han troops such as Heavy Infantry. Armed with either long Qiang or Zhanmadao (the latter for mounted foes such as the Sioux), the Heavy Infantry make up for their lack of speed with heavy armor and powerful melee potential once in close quarters. The Old Han infantry first use leather armor, though weights are eventually added until many of the Heavy Infantry are armed with iron plates that can repel even arquebus shots. As melee troops, the Old Han must still be protected by skirmishers and New Han Bowgunners. *'Xinhan Imperial Police:' The police of Xinhan are known mainly by their distinctive, ankle-length long black robes. They wear a similar helmet to the Xinhan light infantry, but they generally use short-range weapons such as Qiang, clubs or crowd control weapons. The Imperial police have military training, but, due to their lack of armor, will not be able to fight against a disciplined army. The Crusading Kingdom *'Venetian Merchant and Holy Roman Doppelsoldners:' Venetian Merchants, while nowhere as prosperous as their renaissance years, occupy an area in the Middle of the Mediterranean, putting them in an ideal position to gain from the trades between East and West. As such, many could bankroll large mercenary armies and, by the 1500's, whole city-states (with the notable example of the Medici Family). The Holy Roman Empire (known for being neither Holy, Roman nor an Empire), was divided with the death of Charlemagne into hundreds of smaller states. In these times, Mercenaries were good investments, and in the Holy Roman Empire, there were no better than the Doppelsoldners. A step above the Landsknecht mercenaries (who mainly imitated the Swiss), Doppelsoldners wielded pikes, short swords, and, most notably, large, two-handed swords called Zweihanders that could easily take saw even an armored enemy in half. Category:Culture